Hey, Barb here!
Great to have you back for this 2nd issue of BBH (Business Blogging Handbook)! I wanted to share with you why I know blogging can help you to connect with your potential & current customers as they move through their customer journey, otherwise known as Customer Lifecycle Marketing.
How can you build your credibility with someone who doesn't know anything about you or your business? An active blog helps them to get to know you as they consider if you're a good fit for their needs. Learn more in the Hub of Customer Lifecycle post below.
Let's get started with this issue!
The Who
Who are your competitors?
You know who your competitors are. Do they have a blog on their website (or blog on social media)? If I asked you to go read the last three posts from your 3 closest competitors, what you you find?
If they do have posts, how effective do you find them to be? What doesn't work from your point of view? What does the presence of the blog say to you?
Just thought I'd start by giving you something to think about!
The What
The Hub of Customer Lifecycle Marketing
Your blog should be...reliably relevant to your audience. As you go about meeting your customers wherever they are in their buying journey and addressing their needs, you need to keep them engaged. You can do this by inspiring them to take action, interact with your brand, and communicate with you directly. It's important to make sure you are working to your customer journey for every interaction. Keeping this in mind will make your blogging life easier.
This post shows you where your options are at every stage of the journey so you can identify what type of content and what topics you can use and never run out of ideas.
9 Different Blog Post Types and How to Use Them
It doesn’t matter whether you’re just starting your first blog or are a veteran blogger, there will come a time when you’re staring down writer’s block. It could be because it’s a Friday afternoon and your brain has already started the weekend, or, it could be that you can’t figure out what you should write about.
There's a place for each of these content types in your blogging arsenal, so take a look at the list.
The Why
How To Quickly (And Accurately) Discover Your Audience’s Most Pressing Pain Points
When you truly understand your clients’ problems, you will better know how to position yourself and communicate the unique values and benefits that you can offer through your services. You’ll also know how to improve your output so you can better address their needs.
This is where your blog and posts come in! You can show your visitors that you understand their problems, and that your can talk to their concerns as well as have the products and/por services to take care of the problem.
The How
Before you go headlong into creating blog posts and and trying to figure out where to share them, it's a great idea to look at your current blog pages and posts to see if they still serve you and your business vision, as well as serve your visitors the way you want and need.
Now you've decided on the reasons for your blog you can look at your current content with a critical eye. As mentioned above, one side of the equation is to look at your blog (and your wbsite in general) to see how it serves the Customer Lifecycle and the other is to identify the purpose of your blog.
Once that's done, you'll want to probably look at the next item in this newsletter for help in cleaning up. Check it out.
How to Remove Deleted Blog Posts From Google (or Update Outdated Posts)
When a blog has been neglected for some time and you decide to revive it, you may find the old posts could be 1) no longer something you want to have out there in the wild, or 2) You have posts that need to be refreshed before going foward. There are ways to manage this, now you've made the decision that your blog will represent you going forward (I say this based on your interest in business blogging, shown when you signed up for thie newsletter), and this post explains a couple of options, including a step-by-step to managing your posts' footprint in Google.
Did You Know?
It’s estimated that around 70-80% of all internet users read blog posts. Various sources have stated that blog readership is estimated at 70-80% of them, so we’ll take the middle figure.
75% of 4.54 billion = 3,405,000,000.
Potentially 3.4 billion people around the world read blogs.
What type of blogger are you?
Have you thought about what kind of blogger you are? Take the quiz to get some insight!
Before you go
I hope you enjoyed this issue of BBH (Business Blogging Handbook), and that it gave you something to think about. Blogging doesn't have to be a scary prospect once you are able to place the reason for it in your marketing efforts. Blogging will make a huge difference to your success on your own terms.
If you have questions about blogging for your business, or suggestions of what you'd like to see in this newsletter I'd love to hear from you. Drop me an email here and let's talk.
Do you know someone who would enjoy what this newsletter is all about? Let them know. We'd love to have them join us!
Next issue we'll start to get into specific info you need to make your business blog add to your marketing strategy, including some crucial background tasks.